Even though the Convicts have always been more brutal in discarding their ageing players than England it's inevitable some will linger around beyond their shelf-life based on their achievements in the past few months.

England has a good crop of young batsmen already coming through but we seem woefully short of young bowling talent.

It's vital this summer than we don't persist with the likes of Tremlett,Ranking and even Jimmy if they're underperforming, even if we take a hit against India.

Steve Finn is going to be vital for us going forward, if we can get him right then we should be able to transition into the post Jimmy phase without too much hurt since Broad still has his best years ahead of him.

But if Finn is stuffed for good I can see us really struggling.

One thing I will say for the Aussies is they seem to have a glut of fast bowling talent at the moment.......but then they are struggling for batsmen.

Have both been performing great of late and along with Clarke (and Haddin) have been the backbone of the Aussies batting line-up.

Every other spot is up for grabs though and the fact they have a 36 year old basically at the start of his international career at the top of the order and Marsh is on his 3rd (unconvincing) comeback is a fair indication that the Sheffield Shield stocks are low.

Riding off into the sunset?! We're just a little late to mature I reckon (some a little later than others). There'll still be a few of them hammering the English bowling and dropping in the odd bouncer when you guys are next out in sunny Melbourne on a Boxing Day in the future. Come to think of it, I'll probably be there again myself... Hope you are all well. Tony

Riding off into the sunset?! We're just a little late to mature I reckon (some a little later than others). There'll still be a few of them hammering the English bowling and dropping in the odd bouncer when you guys are next out in sunny Melbourne on a Boxing Day in the future. Come to think of it, I'll probably be there again myself... Hope you are all well. Tony

Will you be sticking around beyond the lunch interval if Australia aren't doing too well ?The MCG gets very echoey when that happens.